Warrior Rants ~ Lionblaze
Lionblaze isn't really the smartest of all cats in my opinion. When he was near enough six moons, he thought it would be a good idea to find some foxes in the territory that almost got Jayfeather killed. Yes, he was a kit, but that doesn't excuse anything. He was old enough to know that he wasn't allowed out of the camp yet he insisted they'd be important to the Clan. The warrior code didn't seem to apply to him even though he was a kit and only seemed to think it mattered to apprentices and warriors. After facing punishment with his apprenticeship being delayed, Lionkit becomes Lionpaw and meets Heatherpaw, a WindClan apprentice. He decides to meet up with her against his Clans' back and thinks it's a good idea. He refuses to stop meeting her even though Hollypaw and Cinderpaw were at his tail. He even points out to Hollypaw that she's in the wrong when he is too. He just thinks it's the best idea to be seeing a cat from another Clan. Hollypaw had a reason to be seeing Willowpaw; she was helping her to make sure RiverClan was alright and didn't die out. Lionpaw was doing nothing but betraying his Clan completely. So then Tigerstar and Hawkfrost come in his dreams and offer him training just so they could use him for his own plans. Lionpaw heard enough tales of Tigerstar to know he was evil and couldn't be trusted. He just never took them into account and somehow lost sense. The same can be said for Ivypool and any other Dark Forest trainee, but Ivypool's jealously and loneliness was used to tempt her even further. Lionpaw never had any problems to get lured into their paws even though his powers could easily be used against the Clans. He even thought it was okay to teach an enemy cat moves which could make WindClan's warriors more stronger if Heatherpaw did decide to teach her Clanmates them. Lionpaw failed to see any of this. When finding out that WindClan had been using the tunnels, Lionpaw got mad and accused Heatherpaw of telling her Clan when she didn't. He refused to believe that Sedgekit, one of the kits he rescued, told the Clan. He thought it would be okay to accuse Heatherpaw even though she clearly wouldn't have told her Clan. He was too stubborn to acknowledge the fact that Sedgekit had a big adventure with her siblings. Kits brag about things and exploring somewhere new to them would definitely be a place they'd brag about since the Clan never knew about them. Lionpaw even almost killed Heatherpaw because of that. During the time ThunderClan was attacked by greencough, Lionblaze's Clan nearly died before he decided to go fetch some herbs because he was afraid of running into Heathertail. It wasn't until he saw Firestar lose a life when Lionblaze gave in and finally decided to go. Briarkit and Millie almost died as well because of him. Yes, Lionblaze had bloody visions and nightmares about killing Heatherpaw because of Tigerstar, but he should have at least been loyal by saving his Clan when cats could have easily died. For some reason, Lionblaze turned even dumber when he and his siblings wanted Sol to spill all he knew about the prophecy. Sol just basically kept repeating himself and Lionblaze took it in like he already didn't know it. Seriously, did he suddenly lose his knowledge or acted dumb for the sake of it? Upon discovering Dovewing was part of the Three, he tells her to not tell anyone about it. Then he later goes and tells Cinderheart everything which made her turn all dramatic about their destinies, annoying him. He's such a hypocrite and then wonders why Cinderheart ran from him. Talking about Cinderheart, he suddenly has feelings for her which came out of nowhere. They never spoke to each other nor interacted with each other enough to be friends. Lionblaze never had any interest in Cinderheart at all until that sudden moment during their walk in Fading Echoes. If anything, he seemed to have a hint of interest in Icecloud. They hung around before and were in the nursery at the same time. They knew each other more than Lionblaze knew Cinderheart before declaring he suddenly "loved" her. For the rest of the series, Lionblaze does nothing but chase after a dramatic Cinderheart when there were better things for him to be doing. I just don't see how they "were meant to be" but that's just me. I'll rant about this in a separate rant with Cinderheart. So Lionblaze decides to let Ratscar injure him. If Ratscar went far enough, he could have died and then the Three would be incomplete and the Clans would most likely be at a disadvantage (even though Jayfeather only did anything and the Three seemed pointless) During the Dark Forest battle, Lionblaze only manages to kill Shredtail and possibly another cat when he could have easily killed more. His powers have been shown to allow him to not get hurt in battle unless he wants to, so he could have easily charged through a bunch of Dark Forest warriors and killed them all. But nope, he just basically leads a patrol to ShadowClan and that's it. If he's going to be unbeatable, what's the point of making him hardly do anything? He could have leaped about the place and saved a bunch of lives while killing. The reason why I like Lionblaze more than Jayfeather and Dovewing is because he wasn’t that bad in the Power of Three. I actually didn’t find him to be as annoying but he started to earn my dislike in Omen of the Stars. He doesn’t complain as much as Jayfeather and Dovewing (before he does about Cinderheart not loving him) and does have his caring side when he can be bothered. I especially liked how he cared about Jayfeather being blind and didn’t bully him at all and was there for him as a kit. I do think that Lionblaze doesn’t care much about the rest of his Clan unless he has a friendship/is close with them. I liked his friendship with Heathertail although he had no right to accuse Heathertail of something she promised she’d never do. There are reasons why I don’t have Lionblaze as loathe or hate since his previous actions do have some reasons for me to like him more. Lionblaze, however, is not good enough to be deputy or leader. He has his power, yes, but he is battle-hungry. His only answer is to fight most of the time and he’s too hot-headed. His personality just isn’t that good for a leader. He’d only throw ThunderClan into battles because of his powers.